Military Members Concerned Over Potential Illegal Orders: Frank Rosenblatt on RISING

Military Concerns Over Illegal Orders

• ⚠️ Service members are reportedly growing concerned about potentially being asked to carry out illegal orders, particularly following a reported September boat strike in the Caribbean.
• 💡 The National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ), which runs the "orders project," has seen an increase in activity since September, with calls coming from staff officers involved in planning strikes.

Legal Advice and Military Law

• ⚖️ The NIMJ provides legal advice to military personnel, emphasizing that while orders are presumed lawful, service members should disagree with orders that are unlawful or manifestly unlawful.
• 🏛️ Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have issued statements reinforcing that military service members do not have to follow illegal orders.
• 🧠 The core principle is that military members have agreed to serve and obey orders, but this obligation has limits when orders are blatantly illegal and morally wrong.

Training, Initiative, and Boundary Pushing

• 🚀 The military excels when junior officers and non-commissioned officers demonstrate initiative and expertise to accomplish missions, as highlighted by the popularity of "A Message to Garcia."
• 🚩 Recent boundary-pushing uses of the military, including National Guard deployments in cities and Caribbean boat strikes, have caused concern and a desire for caution among service members.

Navigating Legal Ambiguity and Local Laws

• 🔮 Providing definitive legal advice on the legality of orders is challenging due to evolving court injunctions and Supreme Court activity, requiring advice to be given with humility.
• 🗺️ Service members deployed domestically must navigate local specificity in laws, as different municipalities have unique regulations that troops may not be fully aware of.
• 📜 Deployments under Title 32, which are supposed to be state-governed, are increasingly resembling executive branch missions, potentially circumventing Posse Comitatus requirements that troops not enforce the law.
• ❓ Service members need to be informed about their mission, who they work for, and their authority, especially when operating in novel domestic deployment scenarios.